Briefly Noted

Divided We Stand, by Marjorie J. Spruill (Bloomsbury). In 1977, thousands of feminists flooded Houston for the federally funded National Women’s Conference, bringing together a diverse, bipartisan group of women to adopt a National Plan of Action—the culmination of an era of rapid legislative gains for women. The same weekend, anti-feminist forces, led by the charismatic and caustic Phyllis Schlafly, held a nearly all-white Pro-Life, Pro-Family Rally across town, mobilizing a radical-conservative movement that was to grow rapidly. This timely history anatomizes two bitterly opposed women’s movements, tracing a connection between 1977 and 2016, when Donald Trump, looking to replace an avowedly feminist President, assiduously courted Schlafly. What the years between Houston and Trump teach us, Spruill writes, is that “progress is not linear.”